PRESS: Healthcare Ministry wants to raise minimum price for vodka

MOSCOW, Aug 28 (PRIME) -- The Healthcare Ministry has sent a proposal to the Finance Ministry to raise excises for all spirits containing over 9% of pure alcohol with the best price seen at over 300 rubles per 0.5-liter bottle of vodka that now costs 205 rubles in 2018, Izvestiya daily reported on Monday.

Under the current legislation, excises for spirits will remain flat until 2020. But the Healthcare Ministry says that a higher price is the best way of cutting consumption, the daily reported.

“When we adjust the excise to inflation, we maintain the affordability of alcohol. The spirits excise, including vodka, should grow faster than inflation so that the product becomes less affordable than products with a low content of alcohol,” a representative of the ministry told Izvestiya.

The Finance Ministry declined to comment. Previously, the Industry and Trade Ministry said that a balanced excise policy should ensure a retail price for a 0.5-liter bottle of vodka of 110–130 rubles.

(59.1476 rubles – U.S. $1)

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